Capt. Frederick Walker — accompanied by his wife, three adolescent sons and a crew of 24 — left Hong Kong in the fall of 1887, bound for the Midway Atoll, where they intended to hunt sharks.

After a stormy crossing, their ship, the Wandering Minstrel, ultimately settled off small and barren Sand Island, where it was suddenly buffeted by ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — He is among Mexico's most celebrated novelists, historians and left-wing activists. But Paco Ignacio Taibo II is best known for his fictional alter ego: Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, a one-of-a-kind private eye confronting injustice, corruption and crime in the noir depths of 1970s Mexico City. The gumshoe's exploits, punctuated ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- The sold-out crowd in the 400-seat Central Library auditorium erupted into applause on a recent Wednesday evening as Bill Clinton, dressed in a dapper chocolate brown suit, walked across the stage to his cozy, leather chair.

Philadelphia was the former president’s second stop on a five-city book tour touting his memoir, "...Read more

A tricky task faces Scott Turow and “Presumed Guilty,” his 38-years-later sequel to “Presumed Innocent”: Accommodate last year’s “Presumed Innocent” TV series or ignore it?

The Apple TV+ show starred Jake Gyllenhaal as attorney Rusty Sabich, charged with the murder of a colleague with whom he’d been having an affair. As he ...Read more

Childbirth is a beautiful thing — bringing life into the world, and all that — but it’s also scary as heck and pretty gross. Combine that with the dark arts, as Grady Hendrix does in “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls,” and you’ve got the makings of a fantastic body horror novel.

Actually, it’s so much more than that. Hendrix is a ...Read more

As you’re learning how to invest, one of the best strategies for advancing quickly is to learn from the masters. Rather than repeating the same old mistakes of new investors, it’s useful — and it saves money — to gain the insight and wisdom of the experts. For the cost of a book, you could save thousands of dollars by making smart ...Read more

Bestselling fantasy author Neil Gaiman is facing new and detailed accusations of sexual assault following a report published Monday.

Accusations against Gaiman, the author of “American Gods” and “Coraline,” among others books, were first reported in July 2024 in a podcast series titled, “Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman.”...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Jan. 4, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2025 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2025, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "James: A Novel...Read more

NEW YORK — Brooke Shields is revealing many private and sometimes painful moments in her new memoir, including that a doctor once performed a vaginal rejuvenation procedure without her consent.

The native New Yorker, 59, details the enraging experience in “Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman,” out Jan. ...Read more

In his first semester at University of South Carolina Law School, Eric Bland showed up late to a lecture in sweatpants and a T-shirt, angering the professor who proceeded to embarrass him by asking him questions he couldn’t answer.

“Mr. Bland,” the professor said, “You should probably call your parents and tell them they are wasting ...Read more

There’s a slyly damning scene in Donna Seaman’s new memoir about her talent/habit/mandate for reading all the time— just reading and reading and reading, nonstop, from her childhood in the Hudson Valley to her longtime career as a Chicago-based critic. In this scene, Seaman is shoplifting. She’s a kid, but not stealing candy. She’s ...Read more

Since his debut with “The Final Passage” four decades ago, Caryl Phillips has built a reputation as a renowned chronicler of the immigrant experience. His impressive body of work has spanned centuries, traversed the places he has called home — St. Kitts, Britain and now the United States — and centered around characters that are all too ...Read more

How well do any of us know our parents?

It’s an elusive question. Most of us spend lots of time with them but certain parts of their lives are generally (and understandably) off-limits. How much is shared with the kids varies widely from family to family. All of that fits perfectly with Anita Desai’s elusive novella “Rosarita,” in which...Read more

It’s a glorious time of the year if you’re obsessed with fictional serial killers (as I am). Detective Alex Cross (played brilliantly by Aldis Hodge) chases a charming one in the new series “Cross” (streaming on Prime), and in two out of the three of my recent favorites, serial killers run the show.

“Head Cases,” by John McMahon, is...Read more

Penn classics professor Emily Wilson is back in the spotlight, thanks in part to Christopher Nolan.

The Oppenheimer director recently announced an adaptation of The Odyssey as his next project, prompting a deluge of reactions on social media, from newcomers googling the ancient Greek text to literature nerds disparaging anyone unfamiliar with ...Read more

Maybe you received a book store gift card over the holiday season? Maybe you’re looking for ideas on how to spend it?

Read on, to learn about some exciting titles that will show up in stores and on library shelves in the next month, including a true crime investigation and, first up, the latest twistathon from British novelist Alice Feeney. ...Read more

Maybe you received a book store gift card over the holiday season? Maybe you’re looking for ideas on how to spend it?

Read on, to learn about some exciting titles that will show up in stores and on library shelves in the next month, including a true crime investigation and, first up, the latest twistathon from British novelist Alice Feeney. ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Joyce Kilmer famously wrote, “I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree.” Well, south Minneapolis has a tree that Kilmer would go nuts for.

It’s the Little Free Poet Tree, located in front of Davin Haukebo-Bol’s home at 4026 3rd Av. S. Affixed to an oak in the boulevard is a small, windowed box that contains ...Read more